ARRRRG ! Darn cheesy thin throttle cable !

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dazco

dazco

Well-Known Member
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I left work today for my 20 minute ride home and got there more than 2 hours later. cable broke at the ball end a mile from work. Man that cable is thin ! Luckily i got a co-worker to bring me some tools and a small crimp thats used to crimp steel cable that we have at work. what a stroke of luck ! crimped it on the end of the broken cable and chipped away at it with a wire cutter and file till it fit into the throttle hole where the ball end goes. then when i started it the thing idled at about 5k. so had to shut it down and mess with the now too short cable and finally got it to be just barely ridable and got it home. Of course between getting the crimp on and getting the idle right the bike wouldn't start anymore at one point forcing me to jump start it about 10 times till that worked. if not for my co-worker helping to push i would have had a heart attack, and even then felt like i would. At 55 i found out just what kind of shape i'm in and it wasn't pretty ! What i fiasco that was !

anyways, now i have to order the cables which are $33 each. In the past i've gotten OEM parts from palm beach triumph and hermys, and i think bike bandit once. But i need these fast. Who stocks a lot of triumph parts so they don't have to order them before they can even send them to me? the things i've ordered from the aforementioned places took a long time.
 
This type of breakdown sucks, we have a local shop here that makes up cables. Every time I have had a cable on any of my bikes go I get them to make up one. The great thing is these cables are a lot thicker than your stock so they tend to outlast the bike. I have never had to replace on of there cables ever. :y18:
 
That was my first thought. My second was screw it, i'll do it the simple way and get the stock ones because i'll be selling the bike in less than a year anyways. Odd thig is that one of the cables was fine with no sign of fraying or any of that. So this one must have been a fluke. i don't really even understand why they can't accomplish the same thing with one cable.
 
At least you got her going again mate.
+1 on yer skills.

Funny enough I've just finished lubing my clutch cable a few minutes ago.

I reckon I could ride my bike just on idle with all that torque. Wouldn't like to find out though. lol

...
 
[quote author=avion link=topic=1975.msg13639#msg13639 date=1223037874]
I reckon I could ride my bike just on idle with all that torque. Wouldn't like to find out though. lol

...[/quote]

Thats actually a good thought G. :y115:
I wonder if you wound the idle up high ( very easy to do with these motors ) just how rideable it would be. All it has to do is get you somewhere to fix the problem.
:y18:
 
This is one reason I love my hydraulic clutch!

I'd really hate to snap a throttle cable on the Trophy though as it disappears into the dark abyss of bodywork before going to 4 carbs.

In the old days of riding Triumphs, you always had spare cables running right alongside your working ones ready to replace.
 
Well, i found a place nearby that does cables and had them put a new cable thru the old housing and add ball ends. $15 verses $36 plus shipping and tax if i bough a stock replacment. But the problem is, once i have it installed my carbs will be way out of balance. It wouldn't have been a problem a couple months ago before my glass/mercury balancer broke ! But the issue now is that the bike will be way off balance, and because the next bike i buy (probably within 6 months) will be EFI i can't justify buying a new balancer to sync the carbs one time. Winter is upon us and i will barely ride between now and when i get the new bike. so $50 for a one time use balancer os not gonna happen.

anyway, i'm telling you this because i want to see if anyone here knows a crude way to get the balance decent without a meter.
 
I have, but i must admit that this is one area i often forget about and can't remember the last time. I wonder if it would be good to pack the plastic channels in the throttle that the throttle cables ride in and the ball hole with some sort of grease? thats where it broke....right at the ball end.

anyways, just to keep the question alive, anyone have ideas on how to do a acceptable carb balance w/o a balancer? I'm thinking maybe revving it and adjusting the screw each time till the revs drop fastest? Got be a way to get it in the ballpark at least.
 
Thanks Carl, but i do know about that and it's a great idea. But for one time it's just too much hassle. I mean, it's winter and the weather is changing and theres a very good chance i won't be riding the bike hardly at all before i get a new one. I think i'll just install it and see if i can get it close by revving it and adjusting till the RPM's drp fast when i let off. Thats how they balanced the air screws in the old days, right?
 
[quote author=dazco link=topic=1975.msg13709#msg13709 date=1223080918]
I wonder if it would be good to pack the plastic channels in the throttle that the throttle cables ride in and the ball hole with some sort of grease? thats where it broke....right at the ball end.

[/quote]


Not grease, but buy a small tube of graphite and squirt some of it in there and where the throttle rotates on the inside. You can get it at most hardware stores or hobby shops. It's basically fine pencil lead powder and lubes them for quite a long time.
 
Well heres one for the books. after screwing around with the balance screw seeing if i could figure out when the bike sounds balanced, i couldn't tell a thing. so i left it wherever it was which i figured could be way off as far as i knew. The bike runs better then it ever has ! There is a obvious increase in throttle response and the d@mn think get to 60 like it never has. the thing is, i always kept it adjusted perfectly and every time i'd check it it would still be spot on. So according to the balancer it should have been perfect till now, yet now is when it RUNS perfect ! I have 2 theories, and i have no idea which if either is the right one. the first is that the bike actually runs better when not perfectly balanced. i know everyone will say thats crazy, but you never know. Second is that i just read the other day, AFTER my balancer is broken of course, :angry: that the Ca. evap system we unlucky triumph owners in California are stuck with much be capped off or the balancer will not correctly show when it's balanced ! I think i may have read that in the manual or heard it before and may have even done it when i first got the balancer but soon forgotten that "little" detail. Of course even if that IS true, the only way it could be why is that i just got lucky while playing with the screw the other day and happened to leave it in the most balanced position or at least close.

In any case, the way it runs right now makes me think i may be happier getting a EFI speedy instead of the Tbird. 7 more HP should put it right about where mine is now, and with tors and airbox mods it should be much stronger than mine. only problem is i don't think anyone had tackled the tuneboy or powercommander in making maps for the new EFI 900's yet. I would have though that with the EFI900 being released in europe and other areas in 08 that by the time the USA got them al that would be done, but it appears not from what i've read.

Anyways, wow.....what a pleasure having even that little bit of extra grunt.
 
what Carl said
cool3.gif
 

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